The use of heat shields in the above mentioned disc brake environment is known in the art as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 3,051,528 in the name of R. Rogers and assigned to the assignee of the present application. The present invention is an improvement over the heat shield shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,051,528 in that it is more rigid structurally and provides more positive protection against heat transfer to the wheel in the case of high performance disc brakes as, for example, that used in heavy jet propelled aircraft which take off and land at relatively high speeds. Under certain operating conditions such as an aborted or rejected take-off, a total braking effort is exercised resulting in an extreme heated condition of the frictionally engaged rotor and stator discs of the brake as well as the remaining brake structure in the immediate vicinity of the rotor and stator discs. The heat load imposed on the brake causes material therein such as metallic base friction lining or pads to become semi-molten. The semi-molten material as well as other heated brake debris is thrown radially outwardly by the rotor discs against the heat shield which, if not sufficiently strong, will flex or collapse under the load imposed thereon and contact the tire supporting rim portion of the wheel thereby establishing an undesirable direct heat flow path to the rim portion and tire mounted thereon. The resulting heating of the rim portion and/or tire may produce localized highly stressed areas thereof and subsequent structural failure of the wheel and/or tire which, for obvious reasons, has disastrous results on the aircraft supported thereby.